Src kinases involved in hepatitis B virus replication

Chronic infection by hepatitis B virus is a leading cause of human liver cancer and liver disease. The hepatitis B virus HBx protein is a regulatory factor that is essential for virus infection in mammals and is implicated in development of liver cancer and liver disease. Among the reported activities of HBx is the ability to stimulate Src tyrosine kinases, Ras-GTPases and transcriptional activation. We now demonstrate that HBx activation of Src tyrosine kinases, but not Ras, promotes a high level of viral replication in cell culture. HBx is shown to stimulate reverse transcription of the viral pregenomic mRNA into genomic DNA through a Src-mediated pathway in tissue culture cells. Targeted inhibition of Src tyrosine kinase activity, mutational inactivation of the HBx gene or retargeting of HBx to the nucleus to abolish cytoplasmic signal transduction activity, are shown to impair viral reverse transcription strongly. These studies implicate HBx stimulation of the Src family of tyrosine kinases in stimulation of viral polymerase activity.